The Story Is Still Happening – Luke 3

A text – Luke 3:15-22

¹⁵ As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, ¹⁶ John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. ¹⁹ But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, ²⁰ Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.  ²¹ Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

A reflection:

John, Jesus’s cousin, the man we call The Baptist, gives fiery sermons in the wilderness and brings about some serious repentance among the folks who come out to hear him. Luke gives us a pretty clear picture here, especially of John’s description of the differences between himself and the coming Jesus. John is clearly saying to his followers in the desert, “I am not the Messiah, but the Messiah is coming.” That was his commission, after all – to prepare the way for the Lord.

But in verse 19, Luke tells us more: John is not afraid to rebuke the King, Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great (who was King at the time of Jesus’s birth). John rebukes Herod for many bad things he has done, and Luke says then Herod did one more bad thing to add to his list: Herod threw John in prison. Since Luke is usually so precise in his storytelling, I am wondering this: if John was in prison (verse 20), who baptized Jesus (verse 21)? Hmmm.

What is clear, however, is that John is no longer the focus of the story once Jesus is baptized. The big event is that the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit appeared in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven claiming Jesus as the beloved Son of God, in whom God was well pleased. We can actually see and hear our One God, all three persons of the Holy Trinity, in the same place at the same time, to launch Jesus’s earthly ministry. All the preparation is complete, John may even be out of the picture, and Jesus alone is the teacher, the preacher, and the living example of God’s work among humans.

Anytime God speaks from the heavens, it is a momentous occasion, and anytime the Holy Spirit of God enters human lives, it is a momentous occasion. Those things happen in our two other devotions for this week, from the Book of Acts (the Holy Spirit entering lives) and from the Psalms (the voice of God speaking from the heavens). This Epiphany season means God showing up, visibly and audibly, in human history in human lives, and we cannot pretend that it did not happen. God the Creator makes us and our world, God the Son lived among us and saved us from death, and God the Holy Spirit still comes to us and dwells with us. God is with us. The story is still happening to you and to me.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for showing up on earth with us. Thank you for being present in our lives even today to be our companion through all things. Help us never to forget that you have been here and you will be here with us, and when each of us comes to the end of our earthly journey you will take us to you once again. Amen